Asian markets slip

ASIAN markets mostly fell at the end of a broadly positive week, with Tokyo dipping on the back of a pick-up in the yen after the Bank of Japan held off any new measures to boost the economy.

Wall Street provided a strong lead following upbeat jobs data, but the South Korean index was dragged by tech giant Samsung Electronics despite posting a surge in net profit.

On Friday Tokyo fell 0.30 per cent, or 41.95 points, to 13,884.13 and Seoul lost 0.36 per cent, or 7.05 points, to 1,944.55, while Sydney eased 0.10 per cent, or 4.9 points, to close at 5,097.5.

In the afternoon Shanghai fell 0.28 per cent but Hong Kong was 0.83 per cent higher.

Japan's Nikkei suffered some selling at the end of another impressive week that saw it add around five per cent thanks to the yen's continued weakness.

The yen, however, enjoyed a rally on Friday after the BoJ said its policy board had voted unanimously to stand pat on policy.

The meeting was the first since it unveiled a huge stimulus package at the start of April aimed at kick-starting the economy and ending years of deflation.

In afternoon Tokyo trade the dollar slipped to 98.60 yen from 99.29 yen late Thursday in New York.

The dollar has been unable to breach the 100 yen marker, which it last saw in April 2009, despite moving within a whisker of it earlier this week.

The euro bought $US1.3030 and 128.41 yen in Asia Friday compared with $1.3009 and 129.16 yen in New York Thursday afternoon.

US shares gave regional dealers a positive cue after the Labour Department said claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level since mid-March. Initial claims came in at 339,000, down from the prior week's revised reading of 362,000.

On Wall Street the Dow climbed 0.17 per cent, the S&P 500 rose 0.40 per cent and the Nasdaq jumped 0.62 per cent.

New York buying was also helped by strong earnings from the likes of Dow Chemical and package shipper UPS, although ExxonMobil and industrial conglomerate 3M came in below expectations.

In Seoul Samsung dipped despite reporting that net profit soared 41.6 per cent to a record 7.15 trillion won ($6.4 billion) in the first quarter of 2013, driven by strong smartphone sales.

On oil markets New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in June, dropped 62 cents to $93.02 a barrel in the afternoon and Brent North Sea crude for June shed 53 cents to $102.88.

An ounce of gold fetched $1,473.50 at 0620 GMT, compared with $1,446.51 late Thursday.